Award-winning singer & writer and “Our greatest interpreter of Dylan’s songs”, Barb Jungr, returns to the East Grinstead Jazz Club with a collection of Dylan and Cohen’s most iconic songs mixing her best and award winning interpretations with a selection of challenging new arrangements of these classic songbooks. With Simon Wallace on piano and Davide Mantovani on bass.
Fresh from curating the first ever UK festival of Bob Dylan for The Farnham Maltings, Visions of Dylan, Barb embarks on a series of shows celebrating two of the greatest contemporary songwriters of the western world.
“Barb Jungr interprets [Dylan and Cohen’s] work with a ferocity and truthfulness that demolishes every cover version you’ve ever heard” – The New York Times
One of the most extraordinary British performers of her generation. Barb Jungr’s formidable talent as a singer, composer and lyricist is only outshined by her ability to re-interpret familiar songs and reveal new depths of meaning and beauty. Internationally acclaimed, Jungr continues to evolve her signature style while her transcendent artistry both live and recorded continues to delight audiences.
“Bob Dylan, jazz, northern soul, Nina Simone and continental Europe’s cabaret music perform a subtle dance in Jungr’s consciousness” observed The Guardian.
In 2014, Barb followed her award winning, internationally acclaimed collection of Dylan songs “Every Grain Of Sand” with “Hard Rain”, laying herself bare to Dylan’s and Cohen’s political and philosophical songs. Hard Rain gained many 4 and 5 star reviews for its uncompromising and powerful renditions. Bob Dylan’s manager called it “some heavy music”. Praise indeed. Jungr’s dedication to re-inventing Dylan’s and Cohen’s repertoire has contributed to her formidable reputation as perhaps the best performer of their songs in the world.
“The brilliant jazz singer on world-beating form. Barb Jungr proves she’s a genuine jazz marvel… A true musical alchemist” – The Telegraph
Working with her longstanding pianist and collaborator Simon Wallace, and with double bass, Barb will include her groundbreaking arrangements of two of the most important songwriters of this and last century.
Songs will include:
Desolation Row
Chimes of Freedom
You Want It Darker
Tower of Song
Hallelujah
Love Minus Zero/No Limit
Hard Rain
…and many more.
“Except for Dylan himself on a good night, this is the best way to hear his songs”
★★★★ Nick Hasted, The Independent
Whether you are just discovering her work for the first time or you are one of her world-wide legion of die-hard fans, whether she is premiering brand-new, original material or revisiting treasured classics from her five decades of performance, an evening spent with Barb Jungr will be a revelation.
One of Britain’s greatest interpreters of song, Barb fearlessly tackles the greats, wrestling the Gods of the musical firmament, stripping them down to the lyrical heart and showing us layers of meaning and feeling that have lain buried under the encrustation of familiarity and nostalgia. Barb “finds confessional depths in Bob Dylan and Jacques Brel that no one else can see” (Clive Davis, The Sunday Times). She brings this same mixture of fierce intelligence, deep empathy, amassed wisdom, and outright audacity to everything she touches, whether dissecting Dylan’s almost impenetrable poetry or adapting a beloved children’s picture book for the stage. If she sang “Happy Birthday” to you, she would somehow reveal new depths to the lyrics; you and the audience would come away thoroughly convinced that you had never understood the song, before!
“it’s as if Edith Piaf and Nick Cave had a love-child, who was adopted by Carmen McRae”
Glam Adelaide
With deep musical roots (her grandmother was a renowned whistler, in a country long since erased from the map) and a career spanning decades and continents and musical genres, Barb Jungr defies categorisation or compartmentalisation, though many have tried.
“A true musical alchemist” proclaimed The Telegraph.
Already an acclaimed folk and cabaret singer, composer, and songwriter with an impressive collection of awards and accolades, Barb broke new ground in 2002 with her first Bob Dylan collection, Every Grain Of Sand.
Now hailed as a modern classic, it was described by the Wall Street Journal as “the most significant vocal album of the 21st Century” and was named as one of the Top 10 albums of the year in both the Sunday Times and Daily Telegraph.
The Manchester born and London-based chanteuse is one of the best interpreters of Jacques Brel and Bob Dylan anywhere on this angst ridden planet today. Always beautifully sung and profoundly acted. Even the patter is pithy.
David Finkle, The Village Voice, New York, June 2003
Since then, Barb has continued to bring her clarity of vision and diction not only to Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, but to Elvis, The Beatles, Nina Simone, Paul Simon, and Bruce Springsteen, among others, in a score of critically acclaimed albums and live shows that have sold out on four continents.
“In her ability to revitalize familiar songs . . . . Jungr has a magic touch. From within the most seemingly trivial love song, she uncovered a stunning depth and complexity of feeling. For a dedicated song aficionado, it was like finding gold in a well-worked mine”
Stephen Holden, New York Times
Astonishingly, as she sings into her seventies, Barb’s voice is as powerful, nuanced, and mesmerizing as ever, and she brings a physical energy that radiates from the stage and infuses the audience.
“On stage she’s a lioness” (Sydney Morning Herald). \\
However you choose to categorize her, it won’t be “easy listening.” Barb grabs you two-fisted by the heart and whisks you along with her on a musical rollercoaster ride as she effortlessly blends jazz virtuosity and formidable gospel soul power with her trademark breezy cabaret chutzpah. She is “a one woman emotional enema” said Julian Clary. You will laugh. You will cry. You will rage. You will go “Wait, what?” And you will walk away a fan.
In her 45 year career Jungr has released more than 20 records internationally on Linn, Naim and her own Kristalyn labels. Wall Street music journalist Will Friedlwald wrote that her “Every Grain of Sand” album of Dylan songs “is, as far as I’m concerned, the most significant vocal album of the 21st century thus far” and wrote a chapter on the album in his book “The Great Jazz and Pop Vocal Albums”. Clive Davis ranked Jungr’s version of I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight as one of the Ten Best Dylan Covers alongside Stevie Wonder, Johnny Cash and Stevie Wonder.
Quotes:
“possibly our greatest interpreter of Dylan’s songs” – Billy Bragg
“Barb Jungr’s Hard Rain, a four-star show built around her enthralling; soon-to-be-released collection of songs by Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen.”
★★★★ Clive Davis, The Times
Bob, Brel and Me showcase’s a performer at the top of her game. This is stellar cabaret which sees our star interpret the work of Dylan and Brel with a skilful awareness of the source material, and present these tracks with a heartfelt originality, charm and elegance. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Culture Fix
“Electrifying … .the top rank of jazz singers. A true musical alchemist, she is truly a marvel, who should not be missed” – The Telegraph
Winner 2003 International Artist Of The Year, New York Backstage Bistro Award for Excellence in Cabaret.
Time Out New York 2004 Top Ten Cabaret Shows
Time Out New York Top Ten Best Cabaret Shows of 2004
“Jungr’s singing soars with emotion yet has the intimacy of a private conversation.”
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